IT Contracts & Licensing (Licensing)

Software Management and Usage Policy

Mission Statement

IT Contracts and Licensing supports administrative, academic, and research software acquisition, licensing, and distribution; contract management; and hardware and software vendor negotiations in a continual effort to provide quality customer service in a cost effective manner to Clemson University. Licensing's objectives are to:

Serve as a focal point for University-wide software licensing.

Maximize the purchasing power of the university through agreements with software vendors.

Assist with the full life cycle of software agreements by coordinating license acquisition, tracking, and records management.

Provide a full service approach to software acquistitions, simplifying the process for faculty.

1. General Statement of Policy

Clemson University licenses the use of computer software from a variety of third parties. The purpose of this policy is to ensure proper software asset management.

It is the policy of Clemson University to respect and adhere to all computer software copyrights and to adhere to the terms of all software licenses to which Clemson is a party. It is also the policy of Licensing to manage all software assets and to ensure that Clemson University installs and uses only legal software on its PCs (including portables) and servers. Unauthorized duplication of software may subject users and/or Clemson University to both civil and criminal penalties under the United States Copyright Act. Clemson University must not permit any employee to use software in any manner inconsistent with its applicable license agreement, including giving or receiving software from clients, contractors, customers and others. It is the policy ﻿﻿of Licensing ﻿to acquire and distribute software in accordance with the software management policies of Licensing and the terms and conditions in any license agreement accompanying a particular software product.

2. Service Offerings

Licensing provides assistance for the following, at no additional charge:

Contract research;

Review and negotiation of software agreements;

License tracking and renewal notification;

RFP/RFI/RFQ creation, evaluation, and negotiation;

Professional Services Agreements (PSA);

Outsourcing agreements

Hardware purchase agreements;

Vendor compliance.

Please note that there will generally be a charge associated with new license acquisitions and license renewals specific to you. There may also be a slight additional fee for transactional purchases or volume licenses where initial demand does not meet the initial volume. Licensing strives to reduce these vendor fees by leveraging our economies of scale and utilizing established vendor relationships.

Licensing does not:

Assist with outgoing contracts - i.e. contracts where the University is supplying a non-Clemson University entity;

Negotiate between departments;

Answer first line technical support end user software and usage questions;

‘Own' any non-enterprise software;

Pursue and secure funding for faculty projects;

3. Acquisition of Software

All requests for software, including upgrades, must be submitted to licensing@clemson.edu. Software requests must contain:

the title and publisher of the software;

the date and desired source of software acquisition (if available); and

the existence and location of any software installed on campus as well as any product serial number(s) or node-locked software serial numbers. Software will be purchased only from authorized sellers. If any software is acquired by a different department, that department shall immediately notify Licensing and document the acquired software.

4. Registration of Software

When any department or individual faculty member purchases software, Licensing should receive the software in order to complete registration and inventory requirements before publication to the CCIT software repository. Original media will be kept in a safe storage area maintained by Licensing. User manuals, if provided, must reside with the Licensing group, but may be distributed to users. Software must be registered minimally in the name of Licensing to facilitate proper upkeep and software maintenance.

Please note that Licensing endeavors to maintain the confidentiality of individual faculty who do not wish to disclose ownership to the campus community. All requests for software ownership will be coordinated through the Licensing group.

5. Distribution and Installation of Software

After the registration requirements have been met, the software will be published by Licensing to the campus software repository (\\software.clemson.edu\gs05\software). While many technical staff have access to the software repository, only Licensing is authorized to add, manipulate, or delete any data located on the repository.

A Digital Drop box is available to technical support staff for placing any software updates, revision changes, or new digital media, provided that it meets all policy guidelines, to be published on the repository. Technical support staff are required to notify Licensing(licensing@clemson.edu) once a drop has taken place. Technical support staff are encouraged to notify Licensing(licensing@clemson.edu) upon the release of new or updated software packages.

Only those persons explicitly authorized to use software will be given access rights to media on the repository; and such persons shall then be able to install software. Faculty owners of restricted software packages must submit the userid's of authorized users in writing to Licensing. Any software packages that need to be installed on CCIT public labs must abide by the CCIT Lab Software Installation Policy (http://www.clemson.edu/ccit/support_services/it_support/labs/installation_and_licensing.html). Pre-existing version requirements must be met in order to install software upgrades.

6. Software Use

No faculty, staff, or student may use software unless an appropriate license for that software has been obtained. Before faculty, staff, and students are permitted to use a particular software program, CCIT support staff shall instruct users on the proper usage of a particular software program, and inform users of any use restrictions included within a license agreement accompanying the program.

7. Software Audits

Licensing reserves the right to inspect a faculty, staff, or student's computer system for violations of this policy. Periodic, random audits shall also be conducted as appropriate. The full cooperation of all users is required during audits.

8. Questions

Any questions about this policy or whether you may copy or use a particular software program should be directed to the Licensing department at licensing@clemson.edu. In order to maximize the benefit to Clemson University, the details of this policy may change from time to time.